A question for the #Creators of #mastodon and the #fediverse:
Say you were made aware of the fact that all your work - past, present, and future - was being used to train an #AI bot.
And, suppose you found out that this very AI would replace you exactly six months from now.
What's your next move?
@shrikant ha, I wonder if by creators you mean the programmers of the platform or the people creating content they post on the platform.
At first I read it the first way, but now I read it the second.
Anyway, my next move would be to study exactly how that might happen, because it seems unlikely, but even if true, such study would likely show ways that I could adjust to partner WITH the new reality, finding doors through which my own output would be improved by it.
If an AI can replace me in the role I do now with its downsides, I'd aim for a better role in the future, one without those downsides.
In other words, I'm happy to have been replaced by a dishwashing robot. I'm happy to use that new free time to go do better things while the dishwasher hums away in the kitchen.
@volkris In a perfect world, the AI that replaces you is like a dishwashing robot.
In an imperfect world, all jobs in the restaurant industry are replaced by a dishwashing robot crudely modified to be a chef, a waiter, a busboy, a concierge, etc.
Which world do you think the current one is?
@shrikant I'm in the world where I know an awful lot of restaurant industry workers who aren't exactly loving how hard their jobs are :)
Give them a robot to bus tables, roll napkins, manage the books, put in orders to restock the bar, and they'll be free to spend more time engaging with customers and doing the parts of the work that they actually do like.
And customers stand to benefit from that as well.
Think of AI as taking over tasks, not jobs. A ton of tasks stand to be replaced, yep, leaving the humans able to focus on the parts they'd rather be doing.
@volkris Completely agree about the 'tasks' vs 'jobs' distinction.
Except, the robot is now doing ALL possible tasks and that includes interfacing with customers. In other words, 'all your tasks are belong to the robot' because it does 80% of your job at 20% of the cost.
And, more importantly, the jobs (tasks?) that AI will replace are mostly low-wage. And the people who will lose these jobs do not have enough time or money to reskill/upskill themselves.
@shrikant but this is the point where I start to feel like, Wait, what are we talking about again?
Is the AI going to engage in enshittification so so many say, or is their work going to be satisfactory? Are the AIs going to be indistinguishable from humans even in the "Mom wants to chat with Gloria about her kids while checking out" sense? Are we talking complete replacements for literal humans?
Because I don't actually think the last is on the table at this point, and the last is quite the opposite from the first.
I don't actually believe it's realistic that the robot is doing ALL possible tasks and outcompeting humans at all possible tasks.
And if they are, well, then we're moving into a phase of society where society can have better goods and services without anyone having to work, which is quite a shift.
@volkris In the context of the original discussion, yes, the AI is a complete replacement for 'literal humans', as you say.
Even if the robot is not doing ALL tasks, it is doing enough to replace a portion of human labor assigned to the job.
Better goods and services without anyone having to work? How? Are you recommending universal basic income? Or a Star Trek-like social structure? Because, under current circumstances, neither isn't happening by itself...